Psychological experiences and travel Adversities: A Mixed-Method study of the regular commuters in traffic congestion

This study investigated the psychological experiences and consequences of travel adversities during traffic congestion using a three-phase sequential exploratory mixed -methods design. Phase 1 explored the travel adversities, psychological experiences, and consequences of a sample of ten (four women and six men) regular commuters of Bangalore's congested roads using semistructured interviews. In phase 2, a checklist was developed listing the fundamental themes from phase 1 with Likert-type responses ranging from 0 (never) to 5 (always). Phase 3 gathered data in the checklist and tested the statistical validity of the thematic model in a sample of 190 (81 women and 103 men) regular commuters. Attride-Stirling model thematic network was established with 57 fundamental themes categorized and assigned under the organizing themes of travel adversities (n = 6), negative affect (n = 28), fight (n = 7), flight (n = 6), and negative road occurrences (n = 10), in the global theme, psychological experiences and consequences. Structural equation modeling indicated that (1) negative affect significantly predicted fight and flight, (2) fight is a significant predictor of negative road occurrences, and (3) psychological experiences and consequences create a self-perpetuating cycle, with travel adversity triggering negative emotions, which results in fight responses leading to negative road occurrences, further intensifying travel adversity. A mathematical model is established based on this statistical validation, which holds potential applications in real-time traffic algorithms.